Asking Alexandria Members Talk About Moving to America, Being Chased by Raccoons + More

In an exclusive interview with Loudwire Radio, Asking Alexandria frontman Danny Worsnop and lead guitarist Ben Bruce talk all about their interesting journey from England to America and how they ended up in Camden, New Jersey. After being chased by raccoons and living in a Walmart parking lot, Asking Alexandria's musical career finally began to take shape. Check out their hilarious and very interesting interview below:

You guys are interesting cats, Ben you lied to everybody in the band to get them to move to the United States.

Ben Bruce: I did. I was a bit of a c--t actually, I told them that we had everything sorted.

Danny Worsnop: He says was a c--t, the worst possible term, he still is a c--t.

BB: Yeah I just told them we have management, we have label, we have bookin’, we have tours, everything, we go straight into the studio, sweet.

What year was this? How old were you guys?

DW: This was 2007, very end of 2007 beginning of 2008 and we all flew over kind of staggered ‘cause we didn’t have visas – should’ve been a f---in’ red light right there. Yeah we kind of got here and it was kind of a situation like “Okay so where are we stayin’ now”

BB: Me and James [Cassells] actually stayed in a Ramada in Camden, New Jersey.

Camden, New Jersey, I have stayed at The Rainbow in Camden, New Jersey.

BB: You’re also a fellow survivor.

DW: They should give you t-shirts when you get out that f---kin’ place. “I survived Camden, New Jersey.”

Well think of the street cred we got now.

BB: That’s true. There was a hole in my hotel room wall that you could see outside.

DW: Ben had a fight in that hotel with an interesting creature.

BB: It was two actually. They outnumbered me and they were raccoons and I didn’t realize how viscous they were.

You fought with a raccoon?

BB: Yeah but I thought they were f---in’ nice, sweet things you see in the cartoons and s--t. Then they start growling and hissing and chasing me.

That’s called rabies Ben.

BB: It’s horrible, man. Then I got chased by a dude because I saw him having sex with a prostitute and he got all f---in’ pissed off or some s--t.

Was the hole into another room then?

BB: No this was in the car park where there was also a burned out Land Rover.

Outside the man was having sex with a prostitute and you ruined his five dollars.

BB: I ruined his five dollar hooker. Yeah I got chased by that guy, it was good times. I ate nothing but McDonalds for two weeks, literally breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Just to go back for a minute, we’ll get back to Camden, but has anybody said “Thank you” yet, for the lies?

BB: No actually, no one’s thanked me, bastard.

DW: I didn’t have to thank him, I knew they were lies. But yeah we lived in a Walmart parking lot for a good few months in, not the nicest RV you’ve ever seen. It wasn’t bad but it was an RV.

BB: My parents and Danny’s parents pulled their money together to buy an RV because their children were halfway across the world and homeless.

When did they find out?

DW: I think it would have been like a month in, maybe less.

Living in hotels, now living in a parking lot, how long between the hotel and the parking lot?

DW: That was the really good bit because we were probably like two months getting everything together, got some money together to go into the studio and record a demo, went in and within a week of recording that we had like 13 different contracts through, all just super quick.

BB: So I didn’t lie, I was just…

DW: He was talking truths he knew nothing about.

You got really lucky though, what if you just walked into Joe’s Studio and it’s just some guy’s basement?

BB: Ironically, his name was Joey.

DW: [Laughs] And he’s still today our producer.

BB: And it was a garage, we went to someone’s garage.

DW: Yeah, it wasn’t even his garage, in Connorsville Indiana, another great place.

You had to drive from New Jersey to Indiana, why not hook up with someone in Jersey?

DW: Yeah, that would have been too smart. That would have been way too easy and our ‘Behind the Music’ episode in 10 years would not be very interesting.

So you guys got contracts right away?

DW: Yeah, it was really quick and they put us right in the studio without us havin’ time to even write an album after writing these demos and recording them.

BB: Hasn’t that happened to all of them so far?

DW: And the day we finished recording we went on our first tour and haven’t stopped since.

So I guess the story here, if we were talking to kids who want to grow up and be in a band.

BB: Don’t eat too many skittles.

DW: Don’t do it. [Laughs]

No, no do it. You guys gave it up, you quit, you moved across the Atlantic.

BB: Yeah but I don’t know if the trauma of being chased by a raccoon was quite worth it.